JAPAN'S AIR FLEET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 19, 24 January 1939, Page 10

JAPAN'S AIR FLEET.

1200 NOW IN CHINA. USE OF COMMERCIAL 'PLANES CHIANG'S NEW RADIO STATION ( Special to "Stnr."*) llON*(iKO\(i. January fl. Japanese forces at present operating in tin l \ ailgtse \ allev total approximately l.» div ision*. or I'tIHI.ItOII men. anil Japanese nireraft in China total over 1200 aeroplanes. according to information reaching a foreign military expert hero. I'p till hint January it is estimated the Japanese employed 800 'planes in the China operations, |>ut this number has been increased at present to over 1200 machines, at least (100 of which are being used in Central China. Severalty T<wo-Seaters. Aviation circles attach particular interest to the performance of the American Severskv two-seater pursuit, used by Japanese in raiding Henyang. headquarters of China's Air Force in South Hunan. Japanese bombers have hitherto been raiding interior cities without escorts of pursuit 'planes. As the Severskv 'planes are half-pursuit and half-bomber type aircraft, the Japanese sent them to Henyang. Future aerial combats between the Chinese singleseater pursuits and the Japanese Scversky will be watched witu keen interest. Telling the World. A powerful .1 r> kilowatt short-wave broadcasting station has been completed by the British Marconi interests at Chungking, and by it China will be able to broadcast direct to listeners in Australasia. Europe and America. Latest information on the military situation will be presented. The station, now testing, uses four wave-lengths, 111. II). and 31 metres. Call signs are XliOC and X<JOY and the broadcasts are ill English and Chinese. The new station, most powerful in the Far East, has taken more than a year to build, the British engineers arriving in China just before Nanking fell.